Trust Issues
by EnglandBabe1997
Summary: All of Tony's secrets are coming out.
1. Tony

When he wakes up, Tony takes a moment to admire the fact that their captors have succeeded in capturing the Avengers. It's a feat not many can manage - and he's not quite sure how this gang of thugs has.

After mentally congratulating his kidnappers on their achievement, he notices he is the only one awake. Clint lies slumped against the wall, Natasha draped over him like a curtain; somehow more peaceful in unconsciousness than she ever is in sleep or wakefulness alike. Steve is chained to the wall alongside Thor, an alarming red stain on his temple. Even Bruce is there - though how that was managed without angering the Other Guy, Tony can't quite figure out.

It's good he's the only one awake. That means that maybe he can get them out of here without all of them being none the wiser. After all he doubts the Captain or Thor will remembered being restrained if Tony removes the chains before they wake. And then it will just be easy to escape.

Well, he hopes. Usually he would be much more confident, but these people have captured the Avengers; a feat which JARVIS should've been able to prevent before it even became an issue. Particularly if these were just standard issue thugs.

Even as he thinks about releasing Steve and Thor from their chains without being noticed, Natasha stirs, a slight flinch which has her jerking back to wakefulness - a far cry from her earlier (forced) slumber. She grabs a hold of Clint for a moment as though she thinks he is any enemy before remembering herself and releasing him. Her dark eyes flicker around the cell, as surprised as he is that they were all captured, and even more so by the fact that they have all been put into the same cell. These people are either very stupid or very good.

Tony knows which one he would prefer.

Feeling her move, Clint's eyes snap open and he too scans the cell for any kind of weakness, his astounding eyesight missing nothing. After only a few moments he slumps back into the wall. Both assassins exchange a look.

"No way out then?" Steve asks. They had all noticed him wake up -even Tony, who still jumped. Pretences needed to be kept, secrets needed to be hidden.

"Not yet. There are no security cameras either though."

"But they've taken all my weapons," Natasha says, patting herself down. She couldn't believe that they'd managed to find all of them - even she wasn't sure how many weapons she had concealed on her at any time, only what they were, how the utilise them, and how to get to them in a fight. She felt naked without her weapons - she hasn't been this defenceless since Clint had brought her in to SHIELD. The helplessness was only relative of course; she doubted Pepper Potts or many other women knew the same level of martial arts as she did.

"Mine too."

Tony says nothing.

Thor startles next, mumbling something about Mjolnir and Loki. "Where are we friends?" he booms.

"We're not quite sure."

"Who have we managed to anger lately?" Tony asks sarcastically.

Bruce begins to shift on the floor before snapping upright. His eyes meet Tony's, surprisingly not green, even though Tony can see the terror and anger hidden behind the brown irises.

"What are the merits of getting Bruce to Hulk, to get us out?" Steve asks, trusting either Bruce or Natasha to provide him with a suitable response.

"Zero. I can't access the Hulk; I think they've injected me with something." Bruce twists in pain. "Well these guys are better than the army."

So all in all it doesn't look great - Natasha and Clint are weapon less (if far from harmless) and Bruce is drugged to the gills and even Steve Rogers is injured. These guys must be the good kind.

He hopes they're not too good - the kind that manage to hack into JARVIS and find his secrets files, buried beneath miles of junk and random projects. Those files are some of the best kept secrets in the world, particularly since the others have Tony Stark nosing around their systems.

He shifts slightly and realises they aren't.

But he's not going to go out guns blazing. He'll see if any of the others have any decent ideas - but if it comes down to revealing himself or having one of his teammates injured - or worse - he knows what he'll do.

They wait for another half an hour, sharing possible exit strategies, thoughts about their captors (which include increasingly large amounts of swear words) and side long looks.

After half an hour though Thor starts getting antsy, wondering why he couldn't simply try to break the chains. This time he tries for where they are attached to the wall and then twists and pants as he is electrocuted.

Tony hadn't realised that was possible for the God of Thunder.

He can sense even Natasha becoming worried, though she's hiding it from most of the others admirably.

He's not sure yet. Should he intervene?

No. Not yet.

It's not until their captors are storming into the cell with the intent of taking Steve that he moves.

He looks at the eight dead men in disgust. Perhaps they weren't as good as he'd thought.

"What the hell was that?"

Tony looks up from the bodies to see Clint gaping, Bruce's eyebrows disappearing under his hair, and even Natasha looking visibly shocked.

"We're escaping."

"I can see that."

"Well, we'll have to get a move on then. Someone will probably have heard that." He advances towards the chains holding Thor and Steve, pulling out a set of lock picks from the sole of his shoe and getting to work.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"All over the place. Mainly at SHIELD."

"Why did you learn how to do that?"

"Billionaire you know. I did get kidnapped quite frequently as a kid. Better to be able to get myself out of it."

The team cannot think of a reason to counter with - and right now they don't have time to. There are another four men advancing. Again, before Natasha gets close enough to break their necks, there is a muffled bang and the team turns to see Tony holding a gun.

"Where did you get that from?" Steve asks, for some reason finding it the most pressing question of all.

"Where did you learn to shoot like that?" Clint is both impressed and suspicious. He knows the kind of training that ends up with that kind of technique and he's trying to find out what else he's missed about Stark.

"Around. Training."

Clint doesn't believe him.

It's when they reach the entrance door (twelve dead guards, thirteen questions and six doors later) that Tony finally snaps.

"I've been trained since I was a kid to be an assassin."

"You were what?"

"Trained as an assassin."

"Why?"

"It was my mother's family business."

"What did Howard think?"

Tony grits his teeth. "He founded SHIELD. What do you think he thought?" As he says that, he manages to crack open the key code to unlock the door, striding out. "I'll tell you more later. Do I need to tell you that this goes no further than us?"

Even Natasha has to restrain a flinch at the cold, hard look in his eyes.

Without waiting for a reply, Tony strolls out into the sun.

* * *

"Africa. They took us to Africa," Clint whines yet again, attempting to ignore the awkward silence that had fallen over the rest of the group.

"Better Africa than the Arctic."

"Why?"

"More people."

The group trails off into silence and continues walking.

* * *

Within twenty minutes they are on a quinjet heading back to America. Hill is on it, but Fury is on the line and demanding an answer. Natasha reports their capture simply but with an undertone of harshness, telling them all that she has not forgotten her humiliation at being captured. However when she gets to their escape she falters. It's slight, slight but there. And they work in the lives of assassins. Natasha is almost impossible to unnerve but something has managed - and Tony knows that Fury will not let it drop.

He only hopes that Fury lets it drop for long enough.

The line closes and Tony realises that he's not paid an awful amount of attention to the conclusion of the conversation - he's paid enough of course, he hasn't gotten where he is without it - but the time has flown faster in his thoughts and now all of his team mates are throwing him looks that say he would be being interrogated right now if Maria Hill was not on the ship.

If Maria Hill was not piloting the quinjet Tony still wouldn't have said a word. He promised them answers, yes, but his is a secret which people have died to protect and to find out. He will not ruin that now - now on an insecure aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean - because the Avengers cannot rein on their curiosity for nine hours.

Sometime he wonders how Natasha and Clint made it as spies. He means no offence at all to their abilities as an assassin, but right now they are both far too obvious about their curiosity.

Maybe it's because they don't know that Tony has been trained to find weaknesses like that all his life.

Maybe it's because they actually trust the rest of them (he doubts that, particularly now that Tony's secrets have started unravelling.)

He thinks it's far more likely that it's the first one.

Natasha is a trained assassin, and the first thing an assassin learns is to trust no one.

Tony doesn't trust anyone either.

* * *

They finally land on Stark Tower, having managed to persuade Fury that the official debriefing should take place tomorrow. Tony isn't sure whether this means they're less likely to let something slip to SHIELD or if they're more likely to, just to be contrary.

When they leave the landing pad and enter the Tower, Tony heads immediately for the bar. He's going to need a drink for this.

There is an awkward silence.

"So, how long have you been training as an assassin?"

Tony smirks.

"Longer than you have."

"I very much doubt that."

"I don't. I've read your file remember."

"You never let me forget it," Clint mumbles, oddly light-hearted for the conversation topics.

"So I can tell you for definite I beat you hands down."

"How?"

Tony smirks again, seeing through the obvious ploy. He's actually kind of disappointed with Clint for being this obvious.

"When you started you were what - seventeen? Sixteen?"

"Something like that."

"And you Natasha?" He continues, turning to her. "You were eight."

Natasha gives a curt nod. Tony smirks darkly, his eyes hard.

"And you Tony? When did you start?"

"The day I was born." The glass is empty by now. He turns back to the bar to refill it, also a convenient excuse to not answer the questions that were likely to follow on immediately.

"What?" Steve exclaims horrified and almost falling off of his chair.

He has no reply.

Bruce cautiously asks, "Tony, what do you mean the day you were born."

"Mother dearest was an assassin. Father dearest knew about it. Did you really think I was going to spend my childhood watching the teletubbies and going to kindergarten?"

"You're a Stark. That hadn't been expected of you. What was expected was that you would sit at home and make cars and weapons, not learn how to use them!"

"I'm really bad at doing what's expected of me. Just ask Pepper."

"Can we get back onto the more pressing matters please?" Steve interjects. "Am I the only one who finds this disturbing?"

"By no stretch of the imagination."

"Glad I'm not on my own then."

Bruce fixes his eyes on Tony. "Explain, please."

Tony sighs and slumps in his chair, passing a weary hand over tired eyes. "I started training not long after I could walk. I was trained in various martial arts, learnt how to read, write and speak in fourteen languages, learnt how to use multiple weapons, how to crack a safe, aim a gun, diffuse a bomb. Interrogation. All of the things that come with being an assassin."

The team sits there and gapes at him - they can hardly believe any of this. But they've already seen the proof with their own eyes and don't doubt that Tony has no problem with giving them a demonstration should any of them continue to express their disbelief.

"Why?"

Tony turns to Steve, puzzled.

"Why did you learn?"

Tony shrugs. "It was the family business. Howard found out and approved. Voila!"

He walks out of the room without looking back.

* * *

The team are frozen in their shock. Even Natasha and Clint look visibly distressed - and that's hard for anyone to do, never mind Tony who they'd thought they'd figured out. This doesn't match up with their image of Tony - with none of their image of Tony's.

"I can honestly say this is now how I pictured my day going."

Natasha turns to her partner, her brows raised. "If you had imagined that then I would both admire your foresight and kill you painfully for not warning me."

Clint winces.

"I'm glad I didn't then."

Steve interrupts, "Is this what the future's normally like?"

"Like what?"

"Completely and utterly mad?"

"We're the Avengers. It's kind of in the job description."

Steve sighs. "Why do I do this?"

"Because it's fun?" At the looks Clint receives he adds, "And it means you're never bored?"

"I think I'd rather the boredom. I think I agree with Tony on this. Let's never speak of this again." With this Steve follows Tony out of the room.

Clint pouts. "That's not fair. I wanted to see if I could beat Tony at sparring!"

**This is for NaNoWriMo and I'm not sure if I'll continue this xx Please read and review x**


	2. Natasha

Even though Steve's supposed to be their leader no one really listens to him when he says that maybe they should leave it alone. Tony has been trained as an assassin and of course no one knows that life better than Natasha, but they are too curious to let it drop. They all already know that something is up. Tony may act unaffected but that, that was too uncaring, even for him. Natasha knows that his deepest darkest secret (she hopes) has just been revealed and that is difficult for anyone to handle, never mind the emotionally repressed Starks.

But he is on her team now and Natasha takes care of her own and god dammit she's curious.

It's a personality trait even the Red Room couldn't erase.

So it's really no surprise when she rounds up the rest of the team to locate and contain Stark who has been mysteriously eluding them since their escape from imprisonment. He's had board meetings (that he's actually gone to for once) and debriefing (in which Tony had lied through his teeth and the others had unconvincingly agreed with him) and the rest of the time he's just plain gone, with even the lab empty of clues. It is a blow to her reputation and self-esteem that she cannot find Tony Stark in an enclosed space, never mind the fact that he's just been revealed to possibly have even better training than herself. When she finally enlists that rest of the team, she pretends she wasn't already looking for him.

She fools everyone except Clint (of course it's Clint).

Steve, once Natasha and Bruce have explained lots of convincing reasons as to why it's bad for Tony to bottle this up, actually comes up with a viable plan. He phones a confused Miss Potts who warily tells him that she thinks Tony is on floor 67, helping out in R&D.

Natasha hopes that Miss Potts doesn't phone ahead to warn him.

As luck would have it, she didn't. When they enter the floor Tony is there, checking over the equations inputted into the computer by an intern who, quite frankly, looks amazed that she's meeting Tony Stark himself. Now she looks like Christmas had come early - she's actually seen the Avengers in person (and they are just as hot as she had imagined).

Now that Natasha knows how well trained Stark is she's surprised to see that he stiffens without looking at them, a sign to show that he knows they are there but it also tells Natasha that Stark (Tony) is _letting_her see it. And he is telling Natasha all of that even better than she could tell herself. He is even better trained than she'd thought.

However, when he turns around to call Bruce over to consult him on the mathematics of one equation, there is absolutely nothing in his eyes to show his wariness, which reinforces her idea that he is letting her see him like this, never mind at all. She knows he could feign happiness and curiosity right now and she could walk away, perhaps actually believing he was so unaffected by his past. But he's apparently willing to talk to them and Natasha, deep down where the Red Room haven't reached, can't help but hope that maybe he hated lying to them as much as she (sometimes) hates it.

Very deep down.

They don't say anything - not yet. Sure, they talk (the intern would've probably found it weird if the Avengers had gone down simply to stare at Tony Stark, but hey what would she know about superheroes?), but they don't _say_anything.

Tony thanks the intern for her work (someone's achieved their Christmas list) and then heads back towards the lift. The others follow him. When they get in the lift Tony holds a hand to stall them and the lift starts moving. Much to their surprise the lift, rather than going up to their private suites and locked doors, starts to descend. Natasha wonders where Tony feels as though he can speak freely about his past. Probably nowhere. She understands this completely.

She is only slightly unnerved she tells herself when the doors open onto a floor she doesn't recognise, but attempts to hide the signals. Frankly, over the last few months she's been disappointed with her own skills in disguise and concealment. There is nothing like this floor shown on the tower plans (and believe her, she knows - she had to study the place when Stark got put onto the team) and it looks like something out of that new James Bond movie Clint dragged her to see (she doesn't get other people's fascination with spying. If she was a ballerina or a chemist or a teacher or _anything_else she would guarantee that becoming a spy would be at the bottom of her to-do list).

Tony strides purposefully onto the floor, down a metal encased corridor, Clint and Natasha promptly behind him; Steve following them, a little reluctant and a whole lot awed; Thor positively amazed and Bruce visibly aching to poke everything. They walk until they reach a metal door with the number three on it and without prompting it swings open. Steve walks straight inside, followed by Bruce and Thor, but Natasha and Clint are more wary and Tony knows this and so walks in first, showing them his back, a sign of trust Natasha had never expected - particularly not from Stark (Tony) (Maybe its arrogance or maybe it's just that Tony really is that good - or thinks he is - that Natasha is so little of a threat that he can just do that. Natasha isn't quite sure whether or not to take offence.) There is another door inside, one that Tony waits beside, looking them all in the eyes, hiding everything and giving nothing away. Even Natasha can't read him now.

She isn't quite sure what she's going to say to Fury yet - she knows he caught her pause yesterday, slight though it was, and she knows she will be asked about it later - most likely in great detail. For the first time she doesn't think she will tell him everything. Tony is her teammate and possibly her friend and she knows that she wouldn't appreciate him telling Fury anything she revealed in confidence - under duress or otherwise. Natasha has fronds for the first time in her life and she doesn't think she'll give that up for anything - not even SHIELD.

She thinks Tony can read this in her eyes and that's why he lets her into the second room first and that Clint will (mostly) agree with her and Bruce will _never_betray any of them, never mind to the government and it won't honestly occur to Thor to tell SHIELD - if fact the issues will simply be in reminding him to keep his mouth shut and not let something slip by accident.

Despite the fact that he is their team leader the only one any of them is worried about is Steve. He walked through the first door so easily and Natasha wonders if he really _understands_ what this means to Tony. Probably not. He's the most innocent of all of them and he's the one who fought in World War Two. Doesn't life just suck like that?

But it means something now and if he follows them into the next room they all know there will be no turning back. Even Steve doesn't appear to know what he is going to do now and so Tony looks him in the eyes, carefully blanked, and the two of them stand there eyes locked until six minutes thirty six seconds later when Steve lets out a breath and walks inside.

Natasha internally smiles, refusing to let it show on her face. She has a reputation after all - fragile as it is already with these odd people she is collecting as family.(Why, she doesn't know - she must be insane.) She doesn't know what is going to happen now but they will face it as a team - together.

**I'm not quite sure why this came out as Natasha - she's one of my favourite Avengers characters and I love her but I didn't even realise I was writing this as her for a while. I know she's a bit out of character, but tell me what you think. I'm sorry that this is quite a bit shorter than the first part x I might continue this, but I've got some other fics I need to finish first x Please read and review and tell me where you want me to go with the third part xx**


	3. Steve

**Sorry this one is so short - I'm not that fond of Steve actually so I find writing from his point of view really difficult, even if I wanted to put it in here x Please read and review xx**

When he'd first met Tony Stark, Steve hadn't known quite what to expect- at all. He was new to this century after all. Sure he'd read the reports and seen the news (who hadn't?) but he'd hoped that it was just a public facade, not who the young Stark actually was.

When he'd actually met Tony Stark he realised that this hope was part naivety, part hoping Howard had more of an influence on his son than he'd heard. He'd been more than wrong with his original assumption.

Tony was even more arrogant than he appeared on YouTube (something a helpful young SHIELD Agent had shown him one day). He also appeared to have a complete lack of respect for authority and enough suspicion to rival a German shepherd. He was cocky and made a joke out of everything, no matter how serious the matter - Dr Banner's rage monster for one. It was something Steve abhorred and what with the tensions of that day, he'd snapped. He felt ashamed for saying what he had that day, not for what he'd said, but for saying it out loud. He hadn't been brought up like that. He'd been brought up to call women ma'am and hold open doors for them.

Steve wondered if he was adjusting to this new, ruder century faster than he'd realised.

It was an unnerving thought.

But still, something's never changed. When Tony sped up and spoke that bit too fast he looked so much like Howard that it hurt to look at him, even for a minute, and Steve spent half his time looking for the genius and the rest of the time looking away from him once he'd found him. He knew the others knew the reasons behind his behaviour, even Tony, who couldn't seem to bear to look at him either for reasons the older (younger) man wouldn't explain.

Tony kept his walls up too far for even Natasha or Clint to get through, Steve thought.

But he wanted to know. Tony was on his team now - they were teammates and he cared about his teammates, no matter how much they infuriated him. In fact Tony's brand of fury was just that _tiny_ bit endearing.

But he could never read Tony. He had walls better fortified than the Great Wall of China and guarded them fiercely. So when he'd finally caught a glimpse behind those walls, in an old abandoned warehouse, no matter the consequences, Steve wasn't going to let a chance like that pass.

That was what had been running through his head when he'd followed Tony into the room, but now, bring inside, Steve began to think that maybe he'd made too hasty a choice. It wasn't keeping it a secret - if Tony wanted him to, he would. He was the youngest of the team, physically, and apparently to most innocent, but he wasn't completely naive. He knew how life was, that secrets could be paid in blood - and that wasn't the issue.

It was finding out what Howard, his old friend, had done to his son. How much the man had changed from the friend Steve had known. He wasn't sure if he could handle his illusions being shattered.

But he was Captain America, he reminded himself. Steve Rogers. He wasn't a coward. He didn't back down in the face of doing the right thing, not even for the sake of his own delusions.

And if what he heard changed everything then he'd have to adjust to that. Sometimes Tony looked at him in the oddest way and he really wanted to know why.  
And when Tony was revealed to be an assassin, some of his walls had started to fall.

Steve really wanted to see the whole way.

oOo

The room was dark and cold. It was as metallic on the inside as it was on the outside and appeared empty, making Steve wonder why Tony had dragged them downstairs for this. There were, however, some chairs in the room and they all sat down. Clint and Natasha, as usual, chose seats that were easily accessible to the exits.

Steve had never noticed before how Tony did the same.

Tony noticed him looking.

Steve had never realised how observant Tony was before either.

"Why did you bring us down here, Man of Iron?" Thor boomed apparently oblivious. It was an act that fooled most, but the Avengers had always been good at spotting gaps in masks. They all had them.

Tony tilted his head minutely, seeming to consider something, before throwing a distasteful gaze around the room. "These tunnels have been underneath New York for hundreds of years. For a lot of that time they've been used by Miller family as a facility to train their assassins." He paused. "Welcome to my home not so far away from home." Tony looked around in disdain, a hint of edginess in his eyes.

Bruce looked as confused as Steve was feeling, though, as always, Natasha and Clint seemed to understand. Why would Tony bring them to a place he so obviously loathed? "Why did you choose to build the Tower here?"

"The tunnels are pretty expansive. Pretty good in a tight spot."

No one quite seemed to know what to say. Tony looked as though he were regretting bringing them down here, Natasha and Clint looked both curious and desperate to leave, Thor looked impatient and Bruce just seemed tired. Steve didn't even know what he was feeling, just that, whatever it was, it was making him feel like he was being trampled by a herd of elephants as he looked at Tony's worn figure, the masks dropping like peeling an onion. He wasn't done yet and Steve didn't think he ever would be. It seemed the first rule Tony had been taught in life was to never let anyone see you.

Steve couldn't imagine how lonely a life that must be.

"Why did you bring us down here?" Bruce asked softly.

Tony struggled for the words. "I trust you. Even if it's not with all my secrets I still trust you. I know you wouldn't necessarily believe that so I thought this might help."

Another pang shot through hiss heart when he realised that Tony was used to bring mistrusted. He couldn't imagine mistrusting _everyone_.

"Is there anything you want to tell us?" he asked softly, not wanting to push the older man.

"No," Tony said softly.

They sat in silence for the next half an hour.

Steve knew that although they hadn't gotten far, they'd gotten further than anyone else had before.

His heart broke at the thought.


	4. Bruce

**This doesn't really get much further than the last chapter but I wanted to emphasize Bruce's acceptance without getting too far into my idea for the next chapter - because I think I've got the rest of this story planned out now, even if it's not written x Please read and review xx**

Bruce knows what it is like to be hunted. He knows that particular feeling all too well. He _knows_ what it is like to feel like a monster, more so than any of the others in the team. They all have blood on their hands but Natasha, Clint, Steve, Thor have chosen that. They may not have chosen the path but they have chosen to fight. Indeed Steve had wanted to fight so desperately that he'd resorted to forgery and participating in untested science experiments, no matter how well the test went. Bruce merely wakes up to find out that the red on his ledger has doubled.

But Tony has been forced to do that as well. He hadn't known any better - any other life. Even Natasha had had some semblance of a life before the Red Room and knew what she was doing was wrong. Tony hadn't known any different. _Bruce_ had known differently - but the Other Guy didn't seem to.

Bruce had never really known why he'd gotten on best with the most volatile and outrageous member of their team. After all, it wasn't great for keeping calm and stable. Perhaps the Other Guy could sense their shared history, even before Bruce had. Sometimes the Hulk was like a small child, still learning and throwing tantrums, and other times he seemed more intuitive than any of them - trusting Tony being only the first example.

Because Bruce and Tony were the same. They had red on their ledgers that would never be wiped out.

Because they would never be able to gain control of the inner animal. They don't know _how_ to.

He supposes this is why they get on so well.

Bruce doesn't have many friends.

He doesn't have many people who understand him, either.

And when he finds someone who fits into both categories, god help someone who tried to hurt them. Unless it was for his own safety, Bruce would never willingly abandon Tony. Nor would the Hulk.

And both Tony and Bruce can sense that in the other.

It is for that reason that Bruce doesn't push Tony when his childhood secrets begin to unravel. Bruce understands what it is to be hunted, to be trapped. He would never willingly foist those feelings on a friend, particularly not one apparently already so experienced in the matter. He is curious, of course he's curious, but when Tony says no it is enough for him. It has to be. He won't lose his friend over a matter as small as his inquisitiveness.

He knows that most of the team will respect Tony's privacy. The only one that he is even slightly worried about is Steve and when they are all sat underneath Stark (Avengers) Tower and even the Captain doesn't seem inclined to push, he knows that, maybe, they might just be alright.

And they might just be better.

They all have their secrets.

But maybe they won't be so secret anymore - not with each other.

And maybe they'll all be okay with that.

Bruce is surprised he is.

He's even more surprised that the Other Guy is as well.

After the silent half an hour the team goes back up into the main tower, leaving them with no evidence that the tunnels even exist. Bruce doesn't fully understand why Tony would willingly do that to himself, torture himself by building Stark Tower here, but he knows that at least one of the others does understand so everything is alright.

As the lift ascends they do nothing more than meet each other's eyes and share long looks but they leave that lift closer than they've ever been.

Bruce only hopes Fury won't notice the difference.

(Of course he will. But he can hope.)

He can't believe that SHIELD doesn't already know about this - after all _he_ knows how hard it is to hide from the government, but it seems Tony's learnt to hide every faucet of himself since he was born so even the government should be easier than hiding this kind of thing from Pepper.

The Avengers are more than a team now, an idea held together by lies and some bloodstained cards tossed on a table. They are a family.

And they protect their own.

* * *

It has almost been unanimously decided that they will not speak with Tony about it, that they will wait for him to bring the subject of his past up. He might never do that.

Despite whether or not Tony chooses to open up to them the changes in their team dynamics ate visible - they are all just that little bit more sympathetic, understanding.

Fury can tell right from when they enter the room when he calls the biweekly Avengers meeting. Those are supposed to be so that Fury can keep them updated with anything that's happening, but even Steve knows it is just one of Fury's ways to keep an eye on them.

He calls them out on the change straight away, knowing that neither of the spies (that he knows of) will tolerate his attempts to manipulate them. "What's happened?"

Clint and Natasha's faces harden very slightly, almost imperceptibly. Thor attempts obliviousness. Tony doesn't shift at all, not giving anything away. In that way he beats even Natasha and Clint with his skills and suddenly doesn't find it so hard to believe that SHIELD knows nothing about this. Steve though, darts his eyes to the Director and then away again, even though nothing shows on his face.

"Captain?" Fury immediately goes for Steve, knowing Steve's hatred of lying to authority, particularly SHIELD. Bruce supposes it's something that comes from the 40s, the inability to lie to your superiors and the inability to confront them as well because right now all Bruce wants to do is shake Fury and ask how he couldn't have noticed what was going on in the Stark household. Dear god, he'd worked with Howard. Surely _someone_ had cared enough to look beyond appearances.

"Nothing's happened." Steve didn't sounded particularly convincing, not even to Bruce, never mind Fury.

The Director looked ready to interrogate them further but was interrupted by the wailing of an alarm and Hill's voice over the intercom from the bridge.

"We have a situation in New York. I repeat we have a situation. We appear to have to rogue giant frogs."

Tony cackled.

Fury's eye twitched.

"I repeat we have rogue giant frogs loose in New York."

Fury scowled and waved a hand at them. "Deal with this. Then debriefing."

Bruce left the room thinking both about what was going to happen involving Tony's secret and Fury and who would make giant frogs, never mind set them on New York?

Would New York get any weirder? (He ignores the fact that it is easier to get angry than normal becuase he is too busy imagining the kind of childhood Tony had and comparing it to his own.)

The answer is yes. Thankfully none of them were hurt, but the giant frogs exploded into purple slime and the press got photos of Thor attempting to ride one.

Some serious publicity stunts were needed.

Tony would probably organise a charity ball or something to make up for it, particularly considering that they were all in perfect condition for one.

Bruce could already picture the suit Tony would force him in to.

He shuddered.

But maybe that was price of friendship - exploding frogs and monkey suits. And maybe Tony was learning that as well.

Or maybe it was just part of being a superhero. Sometimes it sucked.

Smiling, Bruce looked over to find Thor covered in purple gunk and Tony smirking with something soft around his eyes and Clint poking Natasha in the ribs and hiding behind Steve when she turned to retaliate.

They would all be fine in the end.


	5. Clint

**This kind of wrote itself... (Admittedly at appalling hours of the morning.) This is longer than the last two, to make up for it. I quite like this - and I like Clint. I think I did alright with getting his 'voice' right. The next chapter (which will probably be the last unless inspiration hits) should be out as soon as I can xx Please read and review.**

He's not that close with Tony. Clint sees better from a distance because when you get up close you get personal and then things stop being objective. Tony is closer to Pepper and Rhodey than anyone and as far as the team is concerned, he'll either go to Bruce or Natasha (now they've worked past that whole 'I was sent to spy on you' thing) or even Thor, because Thor is objective. With Loki as a brother he kind of has to be.

Tony is still his friend, they just aren't particularly close.

Which is why he is so surprised when, almost two months after the 'reveal' (the quotation marks go unspoken), Tony comes to find him. Clint doesn't think the inventor has spoken to any of the others yet and he doesn't think he'd be told if he had. But there aren't any _signs _that secrets have been spilled and so all Clint can think is why had Tony decided to open up to him, of all people?

He'll ask - later. Right now he's going to listen.

"Hey," Tony mumbles.

"Hey."

The conversation is awkward, something that hasn't happened since the 'reveal' despite Clint being trained to adapt to any situation and Tony knowing every weak spot of the other man (he had eyes after all and was a trained spy and SHIELD's firewalls aren't all that secure, even if Fury somehow hasn't worked out what Tony is capable of yet).

They eye each other - not warily - but carefully, each knowing the danger the other one presents but trusting them not to take advantage of the guard they chose let down. Clint knows that he won't get anywhere unless he shows that he can trust Tony as well; he turns back to the punching bag and simply waits.

Tony laughs and it isn't one of his business laughs or a sarcastic laugh or a fake one. Now that he's heard the real thing he can hear the difference between one of the man's true laughs and one to please the crowd (he hopes).

Clint turns back to Tony to find the older man looking at him appraisingly. They both know what Clint has just done and what it means and Tony visibly slumps in response, far more subtly than Clint's move, but still letting Clint see the action. They both know that Tony could've relaxed without the slightest outside indicator but Clint is grateful for the glimpse behind the walls, even though it's done on purpose.

"What did you want to say?" He asks because he can't be accused of being anything other than blunt and willing to get to the point.

"I haven't quite decided yet." Tony sounds light-hearted, maybe even sarcastic, but Clint can hear the edge of truth in the words and so resolves to leave Tony to muse without interruption, knowing he will talk in the end. Maybe he's wrong. Maybe that's part of the mask. But they're both letting down their guard today and this is as much as test of Tony's _real_ character as it is his faith in his teammates.

Clint turns back to the punching bag and smacks it, hard. He knows his hands will be bruised in the morning and also knows it's his own prerogative for using Steve's specially designed punching bag.

"Does the Captain know you've stolen his greatest love?" Tony teases gently.

In another life Clint wouldn't have even been here or he might have gone into a mad rage at Tony for saying stuff like that about the man who, however strong, must be having difficulty adjusting to the new century. As it is, Clint, knowing that Tony would never say that with the Captain in earshot, retorts, "Stole implies I wasn't going to give it back. I fully intend to return this. And borrowing of teammates equipment is allowed."

"Said who?"

"Natasha. I think she wanted to get into your armour."

Tony looks mock horrified but Clint can sense an actual hint of unease underneath the surface, even though he knows that Tony knows that Nat won't actually touch the armour without his permission. Or unless he is dying (which alarmingly happens more and more frequently).

"Nah," Clint says to reassure him slightly. "I think she wanted to see if she could lift Thor's hammer."

Tony looks intrigued. "Could she?"

"No. And the holes are in the wall to prove it." Clint shudders faintly at the memory.

Tony raises an eyebrow.

"She had planned to throw the hammer through the wall just to see if she could do it. She couldn't so she shot the wall instead."

"Why is this the first I've heard of this?" Tony actually looks mildly disturbed, as if realising that if he's missed this, what else has he missed?

"It happened this morning whilst you were at that business meeting and we bribed JARVIS not to tell you." Clint already knew how bad he was with this friend stuff, but here he seemed to be making everything worse - alarming his friend and pointing out the weaknesses in a way that is quite frankly, for a spy, blunt. On any other occasion it could be perceived as a threat.

"Really?" Tony wonders how they managed to keep JARVIS quiet.

"We threatened him with Pepper. You know how hard she works to get you into those meetings and taking you out for anything less than the world ending is practically suicidal. Or at least that's what we told JARVIS."

"Pep wouldn't hurt you, now would she buddy?" Tony asks the ceiling.

JARVIS responds sarcastically, "I deemed it not prudent enough to check." Clint knows this is a fancy way of saying yes and internally laughs at how much he reflects his creator. For how ever good Tony is with masks, his robots reveal his soul better than his eyes. But he guesses that Tony can switch that off as well, their personalities, make them seem emotionless and ignorant - and only people who are at least semi-trusted get far enough to see the robots in the first place.  
Silence falls. It is not uncomfortable or awkward or even friendly. It is just silence, the kind of quiet that Clint knows that Tony cannot keep for long. But maybe today he's Tony Stark-Miller and that might change everything.

"My first memory is handling a gun," Tony says after about fifteen minutes of nothing but the thumping of the punching bag. "It was empty and the safety was on but it's the first memory I have."

Clint didn't know what to say. What kind of parents would do that to a child? His own childhood wasn't exactly happy but at least his first memory was his mother tucking him in on one of the rare occasions that she was sober.

"I've been designing bombs since I was six. I've been using hand guns since I was nine. I was five the first time I saw someone die."

Tony isn't usually this talkative unless he's drunk and even then, looking back, Clint knows that it's a controlled kind of drunk even though he's great at pretending otherwise. He wonders what he's done to deserve this level of trust from possibly the most worn and cynical of all of them, underneath the facade. Somewhere down the line Tony lost his faith in humanity, and hearing this Clint can't really blame him.

"How old were you?"

Tony probably knows the answer and they both know it but Clint answers anyway.

"Almost eighteen."

"Still a child yourself then." Tony sounds so old.

Clint wants to protest but at eighteen he knows he was a child in the world, particularly in comparison to Tony, no matter what had happened at the carnival or even before then, with his parents. At eighteen he still hadn't seen anything.

It seemed as though Tony had managed to see the world, the true world, by the age of about ten. He feels sorrow for the remnants of child Tony but not pity. He would've learnt the truth at some point and that isn't what Clint regrets.

"I loved my mother you know," he continues. "Despite it all." Clint feels sick. "I know how wrong that is but despite everything the only one of them I truly hate is Howard."

Clint has heard things about Howard Stark. He's heard many things.

Steve paints him as a good man and Clint represses the urge to yell that war changes people and so does time because you could see every inch of that change in Tony's face when you brought up Howard.

"She offered me the chance to stop. To have a normal life - for a Stark. I would still build bombs and still get kidnapped but I wouldn't get trained for it anymore. And Howard refused to let me."

Clint hates the older Stark for what he's done to Tony, the impact he's had on him even twenty years after his death. Tony remembers his father everyday and hates it and hates himself for remembering. And Clint can't stand to watch that kind of self-loathing in his friend, no matter how used to it his is, because he knows that kind of self-hatred and knows how destructive it can be.

He isn't quite sure what to do next - he might be an assassin but that doesn't mean he comes fully trained for every eventuality - just most of them. There is no precedence for this, no training to fall back on and Clint doesn't know how to comfort his friend, who, despite everything, still has the majority of his walls up, even though he's slowly peeling them away for Clint.

He turns away from the punching bag and twitched as though to put an arm around the older man's shoulders. He doesn't because firstly he doesn't know how it will be received, secondly they are both assassins and thirdly because he is Barton and that is Stark and neither of them are great with emotions or feelings and expressing them. But isn't that what family does? Comfort each other despite being out of their comfort zone. And hugging. Clint's mother was very fond of hugs when she was drunk, even if his father was the complete opposite.

So he slings an arm around Tony and the two of them stand there in the gym until darkness comes and Clint is surprised none of the others come looking for them until he remembers JARVIS. He's also surprised that Tony doesn't fidget or run off to his lab and realises that maybe that is another mask. He knows how to play the crowd and he's been expected too and if being difficult and eccentric keeps his audience then, no doubt, Howard Stark had encouraged it.

Clint hopes that maybe Tony will stop being Tony Stark-Miller and Tony Stark and just be himself.

And maybe he's already started.

(Or maybe he's just putting on another mask.)


	6. Thor

**Final chapter - at last! This is kind of in a different style to the other chapters but I hope you like it :) The length of it is kind of to make up for the appalling length of chapter 3. I hadn't planned on taking this beyond a one-shot so I'm actually really proud of myself for the rest of the story x I hope you lot enjoy it and I hope you enjoyed the rest of the story. Please read and review xx**

Thor isn't quite used to this world yet. Everything is strange and slightly off and lord knows he doesn't understand half the things they do. What is the obsession with showing off half of your underwear? Why are people so addicted to this 'Facebook'? He doesn't understand at all but neither does the Captain, so at least he's not the only one.

But despite culture changing, people haven't. He remembers what they are like from a thousand years ago, how fickle they are, how prone to lying, how fragile, how complex. That hasn't changed at all - and he doesn't think it ever will.

So maybe they do have their 'iPhones' and 'laptops' but the essence of humanity has remained the same whether they have candles or these odd bulbs of light. The man of iron - Tony, as he insists - has spoken with him about his secrets, as he has done with all the others on their team, albeit to varying degrees. They don't speak often - they have too little in common - but he knows the billionaire is a good man, underneath the mask he wears, first for the press (that particular concept hasn't changed at all) and secondly for everyone else.

So when a group of mad scientists take Doctor Banner Thor isn't exactly surprised that Tony goes ballistic.

Loyalty is still the same and everyone in the team has it in abundance, even if for very few people. In this line of work, even when you're practically immortal, you need to know when someone is going to watch your back and when someone is going to stab you in it.

The team all trusts each other, as best as they can with the life they've lived. Thor would say that either himself or the Captain would be best at that - probably Steve because he's actually mortal (if extremely durable) himself so he's more human. His is perhaps the most naïve of all of them with Thor in second place even with his love of war, diabolical little brother and a couple of thousand candles on his birthday cake.

But Doctor Banner has been taken and it is for nefarious reasons none of them want to guess at, even though Tony's probably already hacked through their firewalls to find out for definite. Those two men are loyal to each other beyond measure, but it goes unspoken, beyond words and grand gestures. They are like puzzle pieces - the whole team is. Only those are the two pieces that slide together effortlessly whilst you have to sand down all the other rough edges.

Tony was the first one to accept Bruce and the Hulk in the same.

And Bruce has never looked at Tony any differently after the 'reveal' than he had before it.

So Thor can understand. That level of loyalty is hard to find. And now that Bruce has been taken he knows that Tony will move heaven and earth to find him.  
He does. JARVIS immediately drops all of his current projects to scan the earth and monitor radiation levels as well as combing through CCTV footage. Tony does the same, hacking into satellites and private networks illegally, searching for any sign of his doctor or his green counterpart. What worries them slightly is the lack of interference from the Other Guy because that means that Doctor Banner is either dead (unlikely) or unconscious. If he's unconscious then it means that these scientists have devised a way to contain the Hulk in a way even the army have yet to manage. That makes them a problem, even more so than taking the good doctor in the first place. If they have managed that, these people are a serious threat - a serious risk - and they have Bruce Banner in their hands. Tony is furious.

Unsurprisingly it doesn't take long to find Bruce. In fact, Tony's already suited up and halfway across Manhattan before he gets JARVIS to call the rest of them to tell them where he's heading. It's an old warehouse in Texas and the others are already ten minutes behind in the time it takes them to suit up.

"Iron Man," Steve says through JARVIS because he only ever uses code names in the field, "Don't go in there alone!"

Tony replies sarcastically. "If you're not there, I'm not hanging around outside and waiting."

As the inventor disconnects the line, effectively ending the conversation, Steve pushes a weary hand through his hair, having not yet put on his helmet. He knows they won't catch up to Tony, not with the way he's currently breaking records for airspeeds in a manned aircraft and several others besides. But Tony cannot go in alone - he'd promised himself he'd never let Tony go it alone again. He'd also promised he'd never let anyone on his team get hurt and look where that got him.  
However, right now, there are two members of his team who need him and he won't let them down.

All of the others watch his thoughts fly across his face, even Thor, because, out of all of them, Steve is the worst with masks. They fly faster and faster, their pilot almost certainly breaking some avian rules of their own, but they still haven't caught up to Tony. As they near the warehouse, Steve starts to formulate a plan. He's good at those.

"Thor you go first. Create a distraction. I don't want them dealing with Iron Man. Hawkeye, Widow, you're with me. We go in through this exit here," He points on the maps he's had from JARVIS. "Thor meet us inside when you're done. Now Bruce will probably be here." He points to a different spot, about twelve centimetres away from the first. "And I can honestly say I don't know where Iron Man will be."

Clint snorts, trying to break the tension. "Do you ever?"

Steve cocks his head in agreement and Thor chuckles. They never really know where Tony is, never mind in the heat of battle.

Within another five or so minutes they are above the warehouse, fully ready. There are already a few bursts of fire on the roof, presumably from Iron Man's shots. Some of their personnel, dressed in black and looking like people dressed up as ninjas, storm out to the roof, hearing the jet. Thor twirls his hammer and swings outside, trusting his team to be alright.

With a loud thud, he lands on the roof, the 'ninjas' scattering in fright. They have been trained, but not for this.

Thor twirls his hammer, faster and faster, this time not using it for flight. Instead he points it at the sky and a single bolt of lightning erupts upwards until it strikes the clouds and they all spark to life with electricity. The 'ninjas' start towards him, obviously believing him to be preoccupied. That thought is immediately challenged when Thor directs his hammer downwards and into them, scattering the men and frying others.

It is quick work. He thinks that maybe they sent out the weakest as a distraction and left the best guarding Doctor Banner. Either that or this will be over quicker than any of them thought.

Remembering the floor plans, he deliberately goes in via a second entrance - just in case. He breaks down the fire door, attempting to make as little noise as possible, and heads down a dark and musty corridor, an ominous breeze whipping behind him.

When he reaches the end of that corridor he waits for a moment, straining his ears for the sound of gunfire. He thinks he hears something and so spins and turns left, further into the darkness of the compound. The further he goes, the fainter the sound becomes, so he backtracks. Kneeling on the ground, checking for other footprints - as the Captain has told them and Natasha has taught them - Thor realises that the distant sounds of gunfire are louder. Knowing that the warehouse was only supposed to be two storey and he's on the ground floor, he directs his hammer at the ground and sends a blast through the floor, crashing to the ground a few metres below. He jumps through and finds the room below empty, but the bursts of gunfire are much closer than before.

He's so busy following the sound he almost doesn't notice when twenty men dressed in black swarm the corridor. Almost.

He turns to them and the fight lasts barely five minutes with only three of them left standing. Then he realises that they weren't fighting. They were herding. This realisation is immediately followed by a sharp pain in his arm and he feels his strength desert him as he is propelled forwards. The door slams shut with a bang.  
Steel and concrete line the walls of the room. He bellows in fury, expecting to be unheard through the layers of stone that even Mjolnir cannot blast through. He isn't though. Out of the darkness slinks Natasha and Steve and he can see Clint's eyes glint in the darkness.

Now he is concerned. They have managed to subdue Natasha and Clint and that isn't easy for anyone.

"Thor!" Steve sounds woozy and Thor is even more worried. His own head feels slightly fuzzy, like he's been trampled by a herd of Bilgesnipe.

"Friends! What has befallen us?"

"We got jumped from behind. And shoved in here."

"Where is Tony?"

"He isn't in here. And chances are he's out of the armour that's oh so discreet."

Steve looks worried as though that thought hadn't occurred to him yet and Thor can't decide if that's because of what they've given him or if he honestly can't consider his friend in that kind of danger.

Clint's voice comes from out of the darkness. "There's a glass wall over there."

Natasha has already noticed it but neither of the other two have. It covers the entirety of one wall, but in the strangely shaped room it was only about three metres long. On the other side is a white and sterile room, with Doctor Banner on a table, head lolling to the side; eyes in the back of his head.

"This must be where the scientists ...observe," Natasha says distastefully, eyeing the cleanliness of the other room.

A look of horror crosses Steve's face and he lurches forwards, slamming the glass with his fists. But whatever they'd given him works. His strength had left him and his fury barely makes any difference at all. Thor himself stumbles forwards but can't even make it to the glass before falling back heavily.

Bruce is not alone inside the room. Unlike what Thor had feared, hearing tales from SHIELD and his teammates alike, there were no scientists inside, no one in a lab coat. Instead there were more of the men in black, facing the door, only one of them eyeing Bruce. They had obviously heard the Avengers were here and how one of them hadn't been apprehended. Nor did they apparently know that the rest of the team was watching them through one way glass.

They wait for another five minutes, Bruce still and pale; Natasha visibly twitching. It is quiet and tense, anticipation in the air - for something Thor can't work out. Time freezes for a moment and then the door to the lab slams open, revealing Tony in the dark body suit that he wears underneath the armour.

"What does he think he's doing?" Steve gasps, straining forwards again.

Clint whistles. "I don't know. But it seems to be working."

Indeed it does. The men guarding Bruce are dropping like mayflies under Tony's quick hands and the black of his eyes. Three are dead within mere seconds of the door opening. It is a quick and easy fight - finished in barely four minutes. Four minutes in which Steve clutches at his face, Clint remains wired for any kind of attack despite the thick glass, Natasha hold her breath - not that she'd ever admit it - and Thor feels a ball of something like worry settle in his chest, because these people are so mortal and die so easily. It's why, even thousands of years ago, he'd rarely mingled with mortals. They were so hard to get along with and then all they did was die on you.

This time it's all alright though, Tony puts them all down without a scratch, even if there is now blood on his body armour and on his knives. Dispassionately, he pulls one from the throat of the man lying at his feet and sheaths it, before heading to Bruce and fiddling with something. Thor can now see they've attached him to something - a drip, he remembers, and he's quite proud of it. The moment that Tony removes the needle from his arm Bruce jerks awake, squirming and fighting, a hint of green rising in his eyes and his teeth bared in a primal snarl.

So _that_was why Tony hadn't loosened the restraints straight away.

Tony puts a calming hand on Bruce's cheek, tapping it gently until the green recedes under the brown and he relaxes. Bruce looks completely calm once he registers Tony's presence, who is currently undoing the restraints, despite the flecks of blood on the inventor's cheek and the smudges of red on his hands.

"Come on buddy," Tony teases, the darkness in his own eyes retreating. "Let's go rescue the others."

Thor laughs through the glass. He _likes_ these mortals.


End file.
